Al Ras 2020 – 6 November- Barcelona
Al Ras Combo
Catalunya/Australia
The Al Ras combo is a formation created for the occasion and will open on Friday night at La Sedeta, made up of musicians from the Barcelona Bluegrass Band and Silky Ramblers led by Laura Pacios and Isaac Casas. All of them are already classics of the bluegrass scene in Barcelona, from the jams, the Barcelona Bluegrass Camp and of course of Al Ras. The quintet will be completed by the Australian based in New York Adrian Cunningham, who with his clarinet will surprise the public as he has done several times in the jams.
Newgrass Republic
Catalunya
Newgrass Republic is an acoustic combo that plays bluegrass, folk, country blues and American music formed in 2017 in Barcelona. His repertoire is heterogeneous, combining instrumental and vocal songs, standards of traditional American music such as Clinch Mountain Backstep, Deep Ellum Blues and Cherokee Schuffle with covers of emblematic names such as Bill Monroe, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Gillian Welch or The Byrds, among others. The group is composed of Toni Jou (guitar and voice), Joan Manel Hernàndez (mandolin), Xus Olivas (dobro), Albert Queralt (harmonica), Paco Torres (double bass) and Ignasi Cardús (banjo).
YerbAzul
Catalunya/USA
Barcelona's YerbAzul are four musical friends with long creative careers. Doc Scanlon, bassist from New York, USA, has had a successful career world-wide, and also plays in the well-known BCN swing band, Doc Scanlon’s Cool Cat Combo. There are two talented Catalans in the kinetic combo. Jorge Rodríguez is a soulful singer and guitar picker with a love of Doc Watson, Robert Johnson, and The Band. The inscrutable Pepe Fuster, a wizardly expressive and aggressive banjo player, was a rocknroll lead guitarist in a popular Catalan band before he discovered a late life love of Earl Scruggs. And making his debut with the band will be the redoubtable Ricky Araiza, whose credits are almost too numerous to list here, but we will try: worldwide tours, recording and tV appearances with everyone from John Denver, members of the Byrds & Eagles to his work in Catalunya with La Vella Dixieland, Locomotora Negra and many others. Ricky can play anything with strings.
The music they make together shows their passion for bluegrass, country blues, swing, folk, country and Americana, with some real sweet pickin' and tight vocal harmonies. When you see them, you can easily hear their love of this music and the joy they have of making it together as friends. Their shows are full of warmth, humor and songs that bring the clear mountain air to relax anyone’s complicated city life.
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